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www.MyMCR.net • Vol. 50 • No. 3 4 Sections, 24 Pages • Wednesday • January 20,2021
INSIDE ► ►►
On the Porch 4A
On the Outside Looking In 5A
Meet the U3,
U6 rec soccer
teams
SEE PAGE C3
Vote for
the Best
SEE PAGE D4
WELCOME
TO THE FAMILY
Michael & Wendy Jones
Jonathon Watson
Maureen Swain
Allison James
Patti Dancy
Annie Holiday
Michael Brown
Laurie Yaw
Keith & Lyndell Small
wood
Faye Faulkner
Bobbie Opheim
Chris & Ashley Mitchell
NEW SUBSCRIBERS
OF THE WEEK
DEATHS >»7A
John Baswell
Jeanette Hammersley
Ja nie Lee Willis
Larry Davis
June Stewart
Barrett Jones
Ronald Ennis
Angel a Johnson
Jeffery Snelling
6 06605 “1341b
6
1 6 2 6 4
3
MP mourns Coach Carey
By Will Davis
publisher® my mcr.net
Mary Persons is mourning
the loss of its longest-serving
teacher and coach, David
Carey, who died of compli
cations from COVID-19 on
Monday.
Carey, 69, died at Navicent
Health on Monday, Jan. 18
after nearly a month in the
hospital. A Macon resident,
he had been at MP for 25
years teaching social studies
and coaching track, basket
ball and football.
Mary Persons principal
Jim Finch said Carey had
38 years under his belt and
could’ve retired years ago,
but didn’t want to. Asked
if Carey had any hobbies,
Finch knew of only one.
“His hobby was coming to
work,” said Finch. “He loved
it all. He thrived on it.”
Carey volunteered to do
so many things at Mary
Persons that Finch said his
duties will have to be spread
over several people in
his absence.
“He did morning duty,
lunch duty (all lunches, all
year), coached 2 to 3 sports
a year, supervised many
school events, was never late,
stayed late, and did whatever
you asked him to do,” Finch
wrote on his Facebook page.
“In fact, after working at MP
See CAREY • Page 7A David Ca rey
. '
Motorists pulled the driver from this tractor trailer just before it caught fire. (Photo courtesy Lucas Bevins
By Will Davis
publisher@mymcmet
Three local men saved a
truck driver’s life by pull
ing him from his burning,
overturned rig on Hwy.
42 around 7:30 p.m. on
Monday night.
“It felt good that we were
able to get him out,” said
Lucas Bivens, 21, of High
Falls.
Bivens was driving north
on Hwy. 42 near its intersec
tion with Charles Johnson
Road after spending some time at a
friend’s hunting property on Hwy. 74
when he saw a tractor trailer coming
toward him. Then, said Bivens, he saw
the passenger side of the rig dip, then
the headlights went out. Bivens knew
by the marker lights around the trailer
that the truck was rolling
over.
Bivens called 911 and
got out to check on the
driver, Larry Whitehead,
37, of Warner Robins.
Two other motorists who
came upon the wreck also
stopped to help. They saw
diesel fuel leaking and
dripping into the cab and
a small fire inside.
Bivens saw the driver’s long
dread locks hanging upside
down in the cab and he ap
peared to be twitching.
“We thought he was dead,” said Biv
ens. But then they noticed he was “com
ing to’! They couldn’t open the door so
the three men pulled him out through
a window from the cabin. They set the
driver, who had a large goose egg bruise
bigger than a lemon on his head, on
Lucas Bivens was one of
three men who pulled
a truck driver from a
burning rig, saving his
life on Monday.
Biven truck bed while they waited for
an ambulance.
And just 30 seconds after pulling the
driver out, his rig exploded in flames so
hot that two tires exploded as well.
“That’s all she wrote,” said Bivens. “She
went up big time.”
The explosion was so loud that nearby
residents called 911 to report they were
evacuating their homes.
Bivens works for an elevator company
in Atlanta. But he said in driving back
and forth to the city every day he’s never
seen anything like what he saw on
Monday night. He said adrenaline took
over and he was just glad to be able to
help.
Whitehead told a Monroe County
deputy that he overturned because a
deer ran in front of him and he swerved
and then overcorrected He was treated
and released from Navicent Health.
DA, public defender in new offices
The Monroe County offfices of the District Attorney and Public Defender for the Towaliga Judicial Circuit have moved
into their new offices next to the sheriff s office. Monroe County commissioners plan to hold an Open House for the new
facility later this year. The $1 million facility was built by Warren and Associates.
BOE
requires
masks
grades
6-12
By Diane Glidewell
news@mymcr.net
Monroe County
Board of Education,
by a narrow margin of
4-3, voted to require all
high school and middle
school students to wear
masks whenever they
are not separated from
classmates and school
staffby at least six feet.
The only exception is
when eating meals at
school or in distanced
activities, such as out
side the buildings.
New board member
Dr. Jeremy Goodwin,
attending his first board
meeting, made the
motion to mandate
masks. After Monroe
County Schools Security
Director Patricia Napier
reported to the board
on the number of new
COVID cases and quar
antines over the past
week, Goodwin said the
school board needs to
take the COVID situa
tion “even more serious”
because the schools are
part of the community.
Goodwin, an internal
medicine specialist in
Forsyth, said he has
seen the continuing and
increasing impact of the
pandemic locally.
“It’s bad out there. In
the last couple of weeks I
couldn’t transfer patients
to any hospital in the
five-state area,” said
Goodwin. “I think we
need to be much more
aggressive.”
He said he made his
motion to apply to mid-
See MASKS •
Page 7A
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